Photography

Jillian is taking a film photography class at school and wanted to go down to the beach to take some pictures.  I took the opportunity to take some pictures of her taking pictures! And some of Ben, too.

 

 

Spring is here!

We've had some beautiful March days, the kind that tempt you to come sit outside in the sun and when you do, it's actually warm! Plus, the early spring flowers are blooming!

 (photos courtesy of Jillian)

 

 

On one of these lovely afternoons, I decided it was warm enough to visit the beach.  We still needed jackets, but we were able to enjoy the water and sand for quite a while.  We went home because we had other things to do, not because we were too cold!

 

This little piggy greeted us from the path back up to the car.

Ozette Triangle Hike

Brad and I have wanted to take the kids on a backpacking trip for a long time.  We finally made it happen this summer.  The Ozette Triangle is a 9 mile hike, 6 miles of it along a mostly boardwalk trail and 3 miles along the coast.  We added about four miles to the hike by going up the coast two miles to a more secluded spot.

Starting out...very excited!

Still at the very beginning...

About a mile in it opens up to a nice meadow area.

And after three miles, we reached the coast!

These markers show where the trail is.

The view towards the coast from the end of the first leg.

And the lovely bathroom facilities...this was pretty plush, some of them only had half walls!

Heading up the coast.

 

Kylie loves to climb! 

Taking a break.

Scrambling over the rocks was one of the hardest parts of the hike.  Ben was a natural and sprinted ahead of us (you can barely see him up front with the blue pack.)  We gave him the nickname "mountain goat."

We were worried about bears, but these deer were the only wildlife we saw.

We missed the window for low tide, so we had to climb up and over at the very end to get back to the beach.

Trying to start a fire.

Preparing dinner.  We precooked chicken and couscous, then warmed it over the fire.  Delicious!

 

Here's our first night's camping spot.  The weather turned drizzly and cold in the evening, so we went to bed early hoping to wake up to sun. 

Unfortunately it wasn't sunny when we woke up, but the rain had stopped and it was warmer. 

Heading back down the coast.  This time the tide was low and we were able to walk around the point.  I think it was easier to go up and over!

 

A dead whale...yuck!  I wanted to take their picture and they said, "Hurry up! It stinks!"  I wonder how long it had been there...

Going around another point, we found these petroglyphs.  We stopped for lunch here and talked about who could have made them and what they might mean.  Ben decided it was from an episode of Psych where Shawn said he is going to propose to Juliette.  Gus would be standing on one side of Shawn and Juliette on the other while an Orca jumps over all of them. Maybe the Native Americans were psychic, just like Shawn. 

After our five mile hike down the coast, we reached Sand Point and looked for a camping spot for our second night. 

After about an hour, the rain moved in and we decided we would rather hike another three miles back to the car than spend another wet night!

 

This was a great hike for our first backpacking with kids experience!  It's mostly flat, but scrambling over the rocks was tough in some spot, which Ben really enjoyed. 

More Cousin Time

We also spent time with Scott's family at Fort Ward Park, riding bikes, trikes, scooters and strollers. 

 

Scott is such a good daddy! He's happy to carry a baby even when it's not his own...

and to help the little ones on scooters and bikes.

Love these beautiful people!

Siblings...minus Tyler. We miss you, Ty! The house in the background used to be owned by Elizabeth's parents.

The boys resting at one of the bunkers..  Our family is very boy heavy.  Of my parent's grandkids 11 are boys and 4 girls.

 

We also spent a sunny afternoon playing at Yaquina Beach.

Digging for geoducks was a big hit!

Yeah, they're...interesting looking creatures! The boys were highly amused.  I'll leave it to your imagination what they giggled about...

 

Scott was convinced he could dig one up...

He seized several, but they all got away!

After a while the boys moved on to looking for different creatures.

And dad found some scrap metal to recycle.

The kids also enjoyed playing on these rope swings, attempting to transfer from one to the other. 

Isaac and Ben were both successful!

 

We really enjoyed the time we had with our California cousins and hope we see them sooner than two more years!  It's our turn to go down there, I think!